Greetings LSJ Members! 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Noelle Witherspoon Arnold for her service as our Secretary/Treasurer for the past two years and Katherine Mansfield for her service as our Program Chair for AERA for the past two years. They have both been phenomenal leaders who have worked tirelessly to keep LSJ functioning smoothly. In turn, I would like to welcome Frank Hernandez as our new Secretary/Treasurer andHollie Mackey as our new Program Chair. They will serve in these positions through AERA 2015.  Joanne Marshall will continue to serve as Communications Chair and I will continue to serve as Chair through AERA 2014.

Thanks to those of you who served on the Nominating Committee for 2012-2013. Your work was vital to identifying a new slate of candidates for open leadership positions. And, I'd like to extend a special thank you to those of you who served on the Awards Committee for 2012-2013 under Sharon Radd's leadership. We had a number of nominations for the LSJ awards! Congratulations to: Ann Ishimaru, the recipient of the LSJ Dissertation Award; Shelley Zion, the recipient of the LSJ Teaching Award; and to Anthony Normore, the recipient of the Bridge Award. Please join us for the recognition of these award winners at our business meeting at AERA! We need to take the time to pat one another on the back for the good work that we're doing to promote socially just leadership.

At our business meeting in Denver at UCEA, members indicated greatest interest in the following Taskforce Committees: 
Research and Writing Projects
Teaching for Social Justice; 
and International Partnerships. 

The membership also expressed the desire to continue to focus on social justice through the lenses of gender, race, intersectionalities, and poverty through these taskforces. I'd like for us to spend time in these Taskforces during our business meeting at AERA to develop agendas for working toward at least one deliverable to share at our fall meeting at UCEA. I'd also like for us to spend some time thinking about ways to partner with the UCEA Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice. Please come to the meeting prepared to share your ideas (i.e. white/policy papers, blogs, ideas for new online journals...a website that includes social justice teaching strategies, links to syllabi, a directory of LSJ members, links to LSJ book series and journal special issues, etc.)! Our meetings provide space for you to get involved and take action for leadership for social justice. This is your chance to get to know other LSJ members and to form partnerships that can advance your career and impact change for social justice. Please join us for the business meeting and share your voice!

Have a wonderful spring and summer! I hope to see many of you in Indiana for UCEA 2013. Safe travels!

--Whitney Sherman Newcomb
Virginia Commonwealth University